Various devices exist today that are able to convert Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) traffic to Ethernet traffic. However, theses devices require manual provisioning. During provisioning, telecommunications lines, circuits and equipment are configured to operate with customer equipment so as to provide a product and/or service to a customer. The requirement for manual provisioning of each existing, and all new circuits, makes this a daunting and unrealistic task, in particular for large-scale network changes. For example, the current method of manual provisioning does not scale to a 1,000,000+ line DSL network for transformation onto an Ethernet backbone.
Migration of ATM DSLAMs to an Ethernet backbone with existing approaches to provisioning requires the introduction of another provisioning point in the form of an additional device in which the ATM to Ethernet conversion takes place. To address the provisioning challenge through a change in processes or back-office systems is costly in terms of development and training.